Ruminations and ponderings by the Last of the Montgomery Rebels Fans on the Montgomery Biscuits and Montgomery Alabama area baseball history.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Biscuits vs World, Stats/Standings & Crabs + History!

So I'm watching this Montgomery baseball team and wondering - whats happening here? This is more than just a place to get $1 hot dogs on tuesday, we are seeing some nice play on the field, both at the plate and with the glove.

And the trend continued in the first game vs Birmingham, a sweet welcome to the rival Brummies in the form of strikeout artist Jaimie Schultz. The Skitz have been scoring more runs a week than we have seen in an entire month of games in years past. Its a pleasant change!

NORTH DIVISION
It may soon be time to take the Skitz for real, yet there is no easy guessing who the opponent to beat is - every team in the division has a nearly identical record. With less than three games separating first team from the worst, it will be Biscuits vs World to win the first half. Punching the playoff ticket early would be a first, its well known the Skitz have never won the first half. IN THE SOUTH
The newly-minted Biloxi team has played its way into the top spot, a mere one game above perennial contender Mobile.

Its a two horse race early for the Southern Division, as the third place Braves are five games behind and treading water to stay afloat. Jacksonvile is six games off the pace and Pensacola has seen the wheels come off and is now almost ten games back.

WHATS COOKIN IN PORT CHARLOTTE

We should be keeping an eye on the StoneCrabs, who send us players at what seems a much slower pace than the rate we ship them to Durham and there are a couple candidates for future promotion.

Don't expect a power bat to arrive midsummer, as Charlotte guys don't
crush. Of their teams eight home runs, half have been hit by a 19yr old. You gotta be 21 to be a
Biscuit.

Joey Rickard - he was here last year before being injured, hes now in Port Charlotte hitting .254 in 23 games. Not tearing it up, but he could return soon enough. He may find it tough to grab any playing time as a Biscuit, but if one of our outfielders should struggle or be injured, he is the man to look for.

Juniel Querocuto - ss/3b has been hitting .289 at PortC, likely to be a Biscuit at some point in the next 12 months. Many fans want to see Adames in Montgomery, but likely we will roster Juniel before the teenage prospect Willy Adames arrives.

Maxx Tissenbaum - Catcher could step in once O'Conner proves he is ready to move up. Maxx played Australian League with Coyle, Fields and other Rays prospects this past year for Brisbane Bandits. Currently he is working on that .200 batting average, but it will come.

WHAT NUMBERS SAY

Austin Pruitt gets alot of ground balls, the most on the Montgomery staff at 55%

Boog Powell and Tyler Goeddel lead the Skitz in BABIP at .377, meaning they could be living lucky right now.

Daniel Robertson has 19 RBI, tied for the league lead.
Johnny Field has 18 RBI, tied for third in the league.

Recently-promoted Leonardo Reginatto led the team in Contact with a whopping 93.9% Contact Percent, likely the reason he is now in triple-A.

Shortstop Daniel Robertson leads the team in foul balls with 109 fouls in 108 plate appearances. That is essentially one foul per trip to the plate! By comparison, Boog Powell has 68 fouls in 92 PA.

Montgomery is second in the league in total attendance, firmly entrenched at 64K. In per-game average, the Biscuits are fourth, drawing just over 4 thousand a night on average.

MAY 8 1906
Pitcher Harry Sallee of Bham 2 hits Montgomery but loses due to his own wildness.

"Sallee had a rare and unique delivery known as the "cross-fire."
Placing his
right foot to the third base side of the rubber, while keeping his left
foot on the rubber at the extreme first base side, Sallee cranked his
arms straight up behind his head, leaning far back as he threw his right
leg skyward to a set position.

He would then step or plant the right
leg at a 45-degree angle between first base and home plate, finishing
his follow-through on the extreme first base side of the pitching mound,
delivering the ball at one of many possible arm angles. Batters
constantly complained that it looked as if Sallee's ball was arriving
from first base."

Sallee is still among franchise leaders with StLouis, was a 20 game winner and pitched in two world series for Cincinnati, including two World Series starts against the 1919 Chicago "Black" Sox.

MAY 8 1920

SP Moss

"Jacksonville Stars Lose to Montgomery - Grey Sox Win Before Large Crowd; Moss is in Fine Form - In one of the prettiest games played in the city this season the Montgomery Grey Sox team defeated the Jacksonville Stars by the score of 4 to 2, Saturday afternoon before a large crowd.

Both Moss and O'Neal pitched good ball, the latter after the third inning had the Grey Sox batters at his mercy. Moss allowed only six scattered hits and was given almost perfect support by his team mates. Williams was the batting star for the game, his long double with two on bases clinched the contest for the Grey Sox. After the third inning, it was three up and three down for both teams, players on both clubs making several beautiful plays.
The two teams will clash again today, the games starting at 3 o'clock."